USM Comeback Falls Short Against St. Michael's

            SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. -- The Saint Michael's College Purple Knights got goals from six different players to build a 6-1 lead, then held off a University of Southern Maine Huskies comeback bid to post a 6-4 victory in New England Hockey Conference action Friday night at Cairns Arena.

            The win was the second straight for the Purple Knights, and improved their record to 4-11-0 overall and 2-8-0 in NEHC play.  The win also gave the Purple Knights a split of the teams' home-and-home regular-season series.  The Huskies, winless in their last seven games (0-6-1), dropped their third straight game to fall to 5-10-1 overall and 2-8-0 in the conference.

            Saint Michael's built a 4-1 lead in the opening period on goals by junior Justin McKenzie (Hawthorne, N.J.), rookies Colin Biebel (Roxborough Park, Colo.) and Nic Hermary (Coquitlam, B.C.) and sophomore Sam Finkelstein (South Burlington, Vt.).  Southern Maine was only able to counter with a goal from sophomore Alex Pantalone (Hudson, Mass.).

            The Purple Knights increased their lead to 6-1 in the second period on goals by senior Kevin Altidor (Montreal, Quebec) and rookie Sam D'Antuono (Hingham, Mass.) before USM began chipping away at the lead.

            Senior Todd Bannerman (Georgetown, Ontario) tallied his sixth goal of the season for the Huskies less than three minutes after the D'Antuono goal.  Pantalone added his second marker of the night 81 seconds after Bannerman at 13:32 to cut the deficit to 6-3 and give the Huskies some life heading into the final period.

            USM rookie forward Tyler Mathieu (Stillwater, N.S.) scored the only goal of the third period at 14:29 to get the Huskies within two.  A penalty a minute later cost the Huskies chance to pull the goalie for the extra attacker.

            Biebel, D'Antuono, McKenzie, Altidor and Finkelstein all had a goal and an assist for the Purple Knights.  Junior Danny Divis (Media, Penn.) had two assists.  Senior goalie Michael Comtini (Hudson, Quebec) made 32 saves to earn his first win of the season.

            Southern Maine rookie goalie Dylan Pietrangelo (Port Robinson, Ontario), making his first appearance of the season in relief of sophomore starter Kyle Shapiro (Ocean, N.J.), stopped 15 shots and was tagged with the loss.  Shapiro made nine saves and allowed four goals before being lifted.

            Southern Maine is back in action Saturday (4:00 p.m.) against national-ranked Norwich University.  Saint Michael's will host the University of New England on Saturday (4:00 p.m.). 

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